Did you live a fair way out or just in a difficult to access spot? And did it actually look like that from there? That's pretty magical! And pretty colourful. I've been out to the middle of nowhere and seen the milky way with no light polllution and it was pretty much still just milky coloured in blue/white/grey and all those stars. But at the time I was at a somewhat more northern latitude so perhaps that has something to do with it?
It's a pretty awesome photo at any rate :)
The cabin is about 2 hours from the centre of Sydney (on a good traffic day) but it’s surrounded by wilderness so there is little light pollution. The camera sensor is better than your eye (imagine if you could store up the light for 30 seconds and get one image). So you never see the Milky Way like that in colour with your own eyes. In low light you eyes use your rods which are B&W (your cones see in colour) . What you do see is the dark bits as pitch black against the lighter bright bits which are milky white. So you can easily see the pattern of the galactic core. The aboriginals thought it looked like an emu.
It is harder to see in the North partially due to increased light pollution from higher populations and particulate emissions , but primarily as the galactic season to see it (when it’s opposite to the sun) peaks in June and July which is winter in the South and Summer in the north. So the days are long in the north at that time of year and twilight can extend for hours at most inhabited northern latitudes which reduce its intensity.
Hope that helps.
Ahh that explains why there's so many interesting colours in especially the longer exposure stuff! Thanks :)